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Ohio (U.S.)

Last modified: 2008-06-07 by rick wyatt
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[Flag of Ohio] image by Clay Moss, 11 February 2007

Municipalities

County Flags
The website at www.ccao.org/SH%20Report/sh20050916.pdf explains the origin of (most?, all?) Ohio county flags:

COUNTY FLAG DEDICATION; COUNTY FLAG DESIGN STORIES NEEDED
Thanks to the county commissioners and the other county officials and guests who traveled to Columbus for a beautiful ceremony on Wednesday morning, September 14, dedicating the 88 county flags. The flags will be flown on the Veterans Plaza of the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. The flag dedication ceremony was held on the very date…September 14, in the year 1816 when Francis Scott Key wrote the National Anthem when he saw our American flag in the dawn's early light.

Governor Bob Taft, former Hamilton County Commissioner, Senate President Bill Harris, House Speaker Jon Husted and CCAO Executive Director Larry Long and 1st Vice President Lenny Eliason, Athens County Commissioner, participated in a short program to discuss the contributions of grassroots county government in Ohio.

Veterans Plaza is designed with 88 in-ground stanchions - each marked with the name of an Ohio county in the order each was established and each to bear the flag of that county. The flags were dedicated when Ohio Statehouse Battery A fired a cannon and the flags were planted simultaneously into the stanchions. The suggestion for county flag projects, long in the planning stages, was originally started by the Capitol Square Review and Advisory Board and the Ohio Bicentennial Commission to be a part of the celebration of Ohio's statehood in 2003. The Capital Square Review and Advisory Board members and staff enjoyed hearing about the designs on the county flags and how the design was selected. Pictures of county flags and their stories are going to be featured on a kiosk in the statehouse. Please send stories about your county flag design to Mary Jane Neiman, CCAO Public Relations Associate, at (614) 221-6986 via fax.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 6 February 2007

See also:

In 1818, five stars were added, representing Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee, bringing the total number of stars on the U.S. flag to 20. There were thirteen stripes representing the thirteen original colonies.

Description

Adopted in 1902 and designed by John Eisemann. The large blue triangle represent Ohio's hills and valleys, and the stripes represent roads and waterways. 17 stars symbolize that Ohio was the 17th state admitted to the union. The white circle with its red center not only represents the first letter of the state name, but also its nickname "the Buckeye State".
Dov Gutterman, 12 October 1998

Ohio Revised Code
Section 005.01

The flag of the state shall be pennant shaped. It shall have three red and two white horizontal stripes. The union of the flag shall be seventeen five-pointed stars, white in a blue triangular field, the base of which shall be the staff end or vertical edge of the flag, and the apex of which shall be the center of the middle red stripe. The stars shall be grouped around a red disc superimposed upon a white circular "O." The proportional dimensions of the flag and of its various parts shall be according to the official design on file in the office of the secretary of state. One state flag of uniform dimensions shall be furnished to each company of the organized militia.
Joe McMillan, 19 February 2000

Meaning of flag

From www.legislature.state.oh.us/bills.cfm?ID=124_SB_240:

According to the analysis by Ohio's legislative service commission (click on 'bill analyses' in the left column), SB 240, among other things, establishes an official state flag pledge, defines the symbolism of the flag (stripes = 'roads and waterways,' stars = 'hills and valleys'), and changes the specification of the flag from 'pennant- shaped' to 'burgee-shaped.'

The legislative analysts admit they don't know if this last means the flag would, in practice, have to change shape, since what 'burgee-shaped' means is open to interpretation.

Andrew S Rogers, 15 May 2002

Governor's Flag

[Flag of Governor of Ohio] image by Joe McMillan, 25 February 2000

In use since 1905; adopted officially 1945 [smi75a]. Scarlet with the state seal on the center surrounded by a circle of 13 white stars, and in addition one white star in each corner. Four sizes, all of the same design: (a) flag, made of bunting 80 x 126 inches; (b) official colors, silk 52 by 66 inches with 2 1/2 inch yellow silk fringe and scarlet and white cord and tassels; (c) naval flag, bunting 36 x 48 inches; (d) automobile flag, silk 18 x 26 inches with 1 1/2 inch yellow silk fringe.

Comment: According to [smi75a], only the central design of the state seal is normally used; the GIF follows this usage, omitting the encircling ring and inscription.

Joe McMillan, 25 February 2000

Here is the text of the statute passed in 1963:

" [§ 5.01.1] § 5.011 Flags of the governor: Text of Statute

The flag of the governor of this state will be of scarlet wool bunting, six feet eight inches hoist by ten feet six inches fly. In each of the four corners will be a white five-pointed star with one point upward. The centers of these stars will be twelve inches from the long edges and seventeen inches from the short edges of the flag. In the center of the flag will be a reproduction of the great seal of Ohio in proper colors, three feet in diameter, surrounded by thirteen white stars equally spaced with their centers on an imaginary circle four feet three inches in diameter. All stars shall be of such size that their points would lie on the circumference of an imaginary circle ten inches in diameter. The official colors of the governor of Ohio will be of scarlet silk, four feet four inches on the pike by five feet six inches fly, of the same design as the flag of the governor of Ohio, with the seal and stars proportionately reduced in size and embroidered. The colors will be trimmed on three edges with a knotted fringe of yellow silk two and one half inches wide. Attached below the head of the pike will be a silk cord of scarlet and white eight feet six inches in length with a tassel at each end.

The naval flag of the governor of Ohio will be of scarlet wool bunting, three feet hoist by four feet fly. The design will be the same as the flag of the governor of Ohio with the seal and the stars proportionately reduced in size.

The automobile flag of the governor of Ohio will be of scarlet silk, or wool bunting, one foot six inches on the staff by two feet six inches on the fly. The design will be the same as the flag of the governor of Ohio with the seal and stars proportionately reduced in size. The flag will be trimmed on three edges with a knotted fringe of silk or wool one and one half inches wide.
HISTORY: 130 v 6. Eff 9-30-63."
Sean McKinniss, 12 March 2003

State Military Crest

image by Joe McMillan, 21 April 2000

The state military crest, which is the crest used in the coats of arms of units of the National Guard, as granted by the precursor organizations of what is now the Army Institute of Heraldry. The official Institute of Heraldry blazon is "A sheaf of seventeen arrows argent bound by a sprig of buckeye (Aesculus glabra) fructed proper (two leaves with bursting burr). [Ohio is known as the Buckeye State.]"
Joe McMillan, 21 April 2000